Queer Places:
P.za Carlo Emanuele II, 10123 Torino TO
Charles Emmanuel II (Italian: Carlo Emanuele II di Savoia); 20 June 1634 – 12 June 1675) was Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 4 October 1638 until his death in 1675 [1] and under regency of his mother Christine of France until 1648.[2] He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. At his death in 1675 his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours acted as regent for their nine-year-old son.
Piazza Carlo Emanuele II is known as Piazza Carlina since the XVIII century, due to the fact the Turin people questioned the masculinity of Carlo Emanuele II. Charles Emmanuel II was Duke of Savoy from 1638 to 1675 and under regency of his mother Christine of France until 1648. He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. At his death in 1675 his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours acted as regent for their nine-year-old son. He was born in Turin to Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, and Christine of France. His maternal grandparents were Henry IV of France and his second wife Marie de' Medici. In 1638 at the death of his older brother Francis Hyacinth, Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel succeeded to the duchy of Savoy at the age of 4. His mother governed in his place, and even after reaching adulthood in 1648, he invited her to continue to rule. Charles Emmanuel continued a life of pleasure, far away from the affairs of state. He became notorious for his persecution of the Vaudois (Waldensians) culminating in the massacre of 1655, known as Piedmontese Easter. The massacre was so brutal that it prompted the English poet John Milton to write the sonnet On the Late Massacre in Piedmont. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, called for a general fast in England and proposed to send the British Navy if the massacre was not stopped while gathering funds for helping the Waldensians. Sir Samuel Morland was commissioned with that task. He later wrote The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont (1658). The 1655 massacre was only the beginning of a series of conflicts, the Savoyard–Waldensian wars (1655–1690), that saw Waldensian rebels use guerrilla warfare tactics against ducal military campaigns to enforce Roman Catholicism upon the entire population. Only after the death of his mother in 1663, did he really assume power. He was not successful in gaining a passage to the sea at the expense of Genoa (Second Genoese–Savoyard War, 1672–1673), and had difficulties in retaining the influence of his powerful neighbour France. But he greatly improved commerce and wealth in the Duchy, developing the port of Nice and building a road through the Alps towards France. He also reformed the army, which until then was mostly composed of mercenaries: he formed instead five Piedmontese regiments and recreated cavalry, as well as introducing uniforms. He also restored fortifications. He constructed many beautiful buildings in Turin, for instance the Palazzo Reale. He died on 12 June 1675, leaving his second wife as regent for his son. Charles Emmanuel first met Marie Jeanne of Savoy in 1659 and fell in love with her. However, his mother disagreed with the pairing, and encouraged him to marry Françoise Madeleine d'Orléans, daughter of his maternal uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the younger brother of his mother Christine Marie. They were married 3 April 1663. The couple had no issue. His mother died at the end of 1663, and his first wife died at the start of 1664. This left him free to get married on 20 May 1665 to Marie Jeanne of Savoy. They had one son: Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, future King of Sicily and later Sardinia; married Anne Marie d'Orléans and had issue; had illegitimate issue also; married Anna Canalis di Cumiana in a morganatic marriage. Charles Emmanuel II also recognized five of his illegitimate children by three different mistresses: by Maria Giovanna di Trecesson, wife of the Marquis Pompilio Benso di Cavour: Cristina Ippolita (1655-1730), initially destined to become a nun (at the Visitandines of Aosta and Chambéry), but then married to the prince of Masserano Carlo Besso Ferrero-Fieschi (their 3 daughters will become nuns of the Visitation); Luisa Adelaide (1662-1701), also destined to become a nun (always at the monastery of the Visitation of Aosta) since 1665; Giuseppe di Trecesson (died 1736), who became abbot of Sesto and Lucedio. From Gabriella di Mesmes de Marolles, Countess of Lanze: Francesco Agostino, future count of Lanze and Vinovo, married Barbara Piossasco di Piobesi; Carlo, known as Cavalier Carlino.
Carlo Emanuele II, whom the populace maliciously called Carlina because there were rumors that he was a bit effeminate, in reality he gave himself a lot of do with women. His inflexible mother, Madama Cristina, was a character who tended to prevail in the decisions of affairs of state, and certainly the young prince suffered from her influence with many frustrations. When, in 1666, an heir (little Vittorio Amedeo) was finally born from Carlo's second wife, Giovanna Battista di Nemours, that should have been enough to deny any insinuation about his virility. But the people kept gossiping, telling people that the prince didn't keep faith with his conjugal duties on the court bed. But the duke did not neglect to court beautiful women, who had nothing to do with his marriage. Among the duke's most famous mistresses, there were Jeanne-Marie de Trécesson and Gabrielle di Mesmes de Marolles, Countess delle Lanze. La Trécesson, Madama Cristina's lady-in-waiting, had woven a story with the young duke that lasted for some time. So much so that three children were born from this relationship. Carlo Emanuele resolved the embarrassing question by marrying Jeanne-Marie with the Marquis Pompilio Benso di Cavour (ancestor of the well-known statesman), making her a marquise: in exchange, Pompilio took over the paternity of the duke's children. But what was this woman like, capable of awakening the lust of a man who for the people was considered indifferent to female charm? According to the testimony of a courtesan, it seems that Trécesson was a rather plump girl, with fair and buttery skin, with small eyes and an insignificant little mouth. But there is not much to believe in these statements, which could be tainted by a hint of malice. Giovanna Battista was very jealous and very piqued. It seems that the duchess, who no longer tolerated this relationship, summoned her husband's lover to her court, ordering her to leave Piedmont immediately. In a spicy story by Guido Gozzano, we read instead that the duchess had even caught her rival in bed with her husband. According to yet another opinion, it was the duke who got fed up with her, after the marriage of her lover to the Marquis Pompilio Benso. More probably it was Trécesson herself who left the duke (and her husband) for a new flame, the marquis François Wilcardel de Fleury, a tall, blond officer of the Guard, who lived in the adjacent Palazzo Turinetti di Pertengo (now the headquarters of Banca Intesa San Paolo) in Piazza San Carlo: charming man and inveterate heartthrob. The two lovers met secretly, using - for clandestine meetings - a secret passage that connected Palazzo Trécesson with Palazzo Turinetti, both in Piazza San Carlo. Destiny would have it that a court footman, a certain Cornavin, discovered the affair by chance. Fearing that the serious scandal would be reported to the court, Fleury, assisted by a group of his soldiers, pursued Cornavin, and near Caselle, killed him, disfiguring the body to delay its identification. But Fleury was discovered and denounced: subjected to trial, he was sentenced to death; then the sentence was commuted to imprisonment in the Fort of Miolans, in Savoy. At that point, Carlo Emanuele II repudiated her lover and definitively exiled her from Piedmont. But she soon made up for it with a new flame: Gabrielle di Mesmes de Marolles, lady-in-waiting of his wife Giovanna. In memory of Jeanne-Marie de Trécesson, a fiery courtesan capable of conquering even a duke deemed insensitive to feminine charms, the name of the building in which she lived has remained in Turin and which overlooks Piazza San Carlo.
My published books: